Once known as the City Museum and then the Centennial Museum, MOV has moved a handful of times in the 119 years its been in Vancouver and seen more than its share of artifacts, history, drama, and bizarre curios. According to their website, the …first recorded item contributed to the museum is a stuffed trumpeter swan. And, from that time on the museum has been quietly observing and collecting artifacts from the war, racial struggles, local riots, EXPO 86, the Olympics, visionaries, artists, and unwanted items like neon signs.
In 2008, after over a century of collecting and growing, the museum conducted a reassessment of their vision and made the decision to focus primarily on Vancouver culture and community. The organization was renamed MOV and started with its first re-branded exhibition, Velo-City: Vancouver and the Bicycle Revolution.
Most of the exhibits are interactive and tactile, meaning you can sit in a diner and play a 1950s jukebox or use an old telephone to dial various businesses in the historical records (on a party-line) or dress up in 1960s clothing and watch videos from the Vancouver Riots.
Logistically, the museum shares its space with the Planetarium. The entrance is the same, but payment is separate so pay attention to what you are paying admittance to. If you are not in the city or able to make it to the museum, their website has one of the best photographed and storied online collections I’ve ever seen.
